A female spa boss accused of massaging oil into a male runner’s calf while drunk as he repeatedly asked her to stop has been cleared of sexual assault - and claims the man and a masseur "fabricated the incident".

Kerry Brocklebank, 43, was celebrating a friend’s birthday at Huntingdon Spa and UK Sports Massage on October 11, 2016 when she walked into the room where the man lay face down in his pants waiting for masseur Henry Godfree.

The man - a keen runner - claimed Ms Brocklebank rubbed oil into his calf, thigh and lower back despite repeatedly telling her he didn’t want the massage, and only left when Henry walked into the room.

The businesswoman - who lives at the Huntingdon property where the spa is located - maintained throughout the five-day trial that the man and Mr Godfree were “covering something” and had lied about what happened to get money.

She said: “I believe the intention was for the two of them to fabricate the incident so they could hopefully get some compensation and split it which is just crazy.”

On October 11 Ms Brocklebank went out for lunch with childhood friend Ashleigh Terry to celebrate Ms Terry’s birthday, and the pair later returned to the spa to use the hot tub.

In a police interview read out in court Ms Brocklebank said she drank a glass of prosecco at lunch. She added she had “a few glasses of champagne” throughout the afternoon, but said she was no more than “a little bit tipsy”.

Huntingdon Spa run by Kerry Brocklebank

The man claimed that he arrived at the health spa and sat in the waiting room, which had been decked out with Hallowe'en decorations, when Ms Brocklebank came in and sat opposite him and “started chatting and playing with a witch’s hat bizarrely”.

The court heard she left when Mr Godfree arrived and asked him to prepare for his massage in an adjacent room.

The man said he was laying face-down on a massage table in his underwear waiting for Mr Godfree to return when Ms Brocklebank walked in wearing a bikini.

Stephen Mather, prosecuting, said: "The allegation is that Kerry Brocklebank...came in in swimwear, appeared intoxicated and started to massage him from the calves to his back ending to the point where she was more or less face to face, very close to him, when Mr Godfree came back."

Huntingdon Spa run by Kerry Brocklebank

The jury heard she ignored his repeated pleas for her to stop and when she eventually left she said, “I'm going to leave now because [Mr Godfree] wants me to leave the room”.

But Ms Brocklebank denied seeing the client in the waiting room and accused him of lying about what happened in the massage room.

She also claimed she was wearing a “conservative” one-piece polka dot costume, and not a bikini.

The spa owner said she had not realised the pair were in the room when she walked in to get dry towels and saw the man lying the wrong way round on the massage bench in a “posing, provocative position”.

Ms Brocklebank told the court she said to the man: “Sorry you were left unattended. He [Mr Godfree] is always doing this, leaving clients too long. I’ll massage your calves until he gets here.